Archives
Posted by Justine at 0:00, June 21st, 2009 under Fans & readers, Writing process |
Pain is extraordinarily hard to write about. Chronic pain is hardest of all. How do you write about a character whose every day, every moment, is shaped around constant pain? And not wear out the reader's sympathy.
It can be done. It has been done.
And when it is done convincingly; those are often difficult books to read.
Half the time we don't want to know about the pain of people we know in real life. Part of us wants them to suffer in silence. We're embarrassed by others' suffering, bored by it, made to feel helpless in the face of our inability to do anything about it, afraid it might be contagious, upset by it, angered, and a gazillion other complicated ...
Posted by Justine at 11:25, June 16th, 2009 under Reading, State of the World, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 14:45, June 14th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Ideas, Liar, Vainglory, Writing life, Writing process |
By
TheChrisKnight: a musical take on
segregated proms in the south:
Posted by Justine at 9:22, May 30th, 2009 under New York City/USA, State of the World, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 10:45, May 17th, 2009 under Ranting, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 8:37, May 14th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Research, Writing process |
There's a very fine line between promoting your books and writing tickets on yourself. It's a moving line. What one person finds overly self promotery other people think is fine.
For instance, I was once told I had crossed the line because my Livejournal icons were of the front covers of my books. I thought that was nuts. I like the covers of my books. Why can't I make icons out of them? Too pushy, I was told. It's like you're only on Livejournal to get people to buy your books. Someone else told me I shouldn't mention my books on my blog because it sounds like I just want people to buy them and that's the only reason I ...
Posted by Justine at 13:39, April 24th, 2009 under Publishing business, Writing life, Writing process |
I've been writing stories since I first learned how to write a sentence. But I did not become a full-time writer until 1 April 2003. ((Wow, this is my sixth anniversary. How bizarre.)) In those many many years before I became a full-time writer I wrote in between doing other things. In between going to primary school, high school, university, and my various jobs. I'd always have at least two documents open when I was at uni. One was the essay I was supposed to be writing and the other was the story or novel I was writing on the sly. When the going got tough with one I'd switch to the other. Writing was something that I snatched time ...
Posted by Justine at 0:12, April 1st, 2009 under Publishing business, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
Several people have asked me about my research for the 1930s novel. Specifically, they're interested in writing a novel set in ye olden days and they want to know if there are any particularly useful tools/techniques I'd recommend. Something that applies to more than just the 1930s.
Why, yes, there is one single research tool I would recommend: the
Oxford English Dictionary. It's the best value for money of all my online subscriptions. I could not write without the OED. I'm not even sure I could live without it. I hug its bits and bytes to my chest.
I probably spend just a tad too much time looking up words to see if they were in use in the 1930s and ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, March 24th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Research, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:26, March 22nd, 2009 under New York City/USA, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 1:47, March 17th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 15:39, March 14th, 2009 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Writing process |
Because a good writing day is better than all the mangosteens in the world. Because a good writing day wipes the memory of all those bad writing days entirely. Because I love it.
Posted by Justine at 1:23, March 7th, 2009 under Mangosteens, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:14, February 17th, 2009 under Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 16:56, February 16th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Whingeing, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:05, February 13th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:21, February 12th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:16, February 11th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Reading, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 23:00, January 31st, 2009 under Guest post, Writing process |
Kim says:
How do you organize all the jumbles of idea generating, plot generating, character generating, and so on, in order to see what you have, so you can then take it and put it all together somehow? In my example, I have a 100 page document focused on one story (one novel) only. It has snippets of scenes, plot ideas, potential background for characters, what ifs and opposing what ifs, outlines and ideas for character’s backgrounds, and so on and so forth. Again, it’s specifically focused on one novel and one story idea, but it also includes multiple options for that novel and story idea etc. I’m finding that I can’t move forward with structuring this story without knowing what ...
Posted by Justine at 6:41, January 31st, 2009 under Liar, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 16:21, January 30th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 22:07, January 29th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 29th, 2009 under Research, Writing process |
Epiphany Renee says:
What is a good job to have to fund my writing career?
Do you know of any job that will pay me a living wage to read books?
What is a good major in College, especially for an aspiring writer? (I know you are opposed to Creative Writing as a major, but what do you think is a good one?)
As it happens a while back I asked people to share their suggestions on
good jobs for writers.
The only jobs I can think of that involve a great deal of book reading are librarian, editor, agent (and other publishing jobs), journalist, as well as academic. The problem with all of these jobs is that the reading of books is ...
Posted by Justine at 0:06, January 28th, 2009 under Writing process |
Monica says:
I have a hard time reading other novels without getting drawn in and forgetting to analyze and learn from them. Any tips?
Mary Elizabeth S. says:
A while back, you mentioned something about writing out scenes from books you liked in order to try and figure out how they worked and why. It was only mentioned in passing, and you were going to expound on it but never got the chance. (Of course, now I can’t find that post to save me life, and am wondering if I haven’t gone a bit crazy…) I’d like to know more about that exercise.
Funny you should ask, Monica, because your question overlaps with Mary Elizabeth's. One of the best ways to avoid getting sucked ...
Posted by Justine at 0:46, January 27th, 2009 under Praising, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 26th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Melody says:
What do you do if you’re just drained? Not stuck, not blocked–you still know what’s going on, you have ideas, you can still write–but you’re completely energy devoid, whether it’s because you’ve been immensely productive or because the outside world has just been piling up obligations. Do you just power on through, or do you step back and take a bit of a break, let yourself recharge?
I'm probably the worst person in the world to answer this question. I am all about resting. I will rest at every opportunity. I think everyone should rest. I am horrified by how hard many of my writer friends work. I think it's immoral and plain wrong to work seven days a week. ...
Posted by Justine at 1:06, January 25th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:10, January 24th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:32, January 23rd, 2009 under Writing process |
Rachel says:
So, I just read the storyless character post, and I have a similar problem: the storyless scene. I tend to come up with a scene, kind of like your Charlie scene but generally the idea, not the character, is dominant. How do I give that basic idea and scene a plot, characters, and events?
I've been thinking about this one a lot and I'm failing to come up with any new suggestions. There's stuff on finding a plot
here and I think the one on
characters applies as well, and you've already read the
storyless character post.
I suspect that your problem is that you're still in the mulling stage and not yet in the writing stage. I'm ...
Posted by Justine at 1:03, January 22nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 17:05, January 19th, 2009 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 19:59, January 18th, 2009 under Liar, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:58, January 17th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 2:19, January 16th, 2009 under Liar, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 15th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, January 14th, 2009 under Writing process |
AlisonG Says:
I’m working on my first YA novel, and have (of course) discovered two other books that have similar plots. What do you think, should I read the books so I can avoid similarities and reassure myself that my book will be unique? Or should I avoid them so I can claim I was not influenced and did not steal from them?
Kevin Says:
I’ll second AlisonG’s comment. Scalzi has talked about borrowing concepts for his books. I have a vague memory that Scott may have talked about his books having similar ideas or themes to other books. Have you had a situation where you’re borrowing concepts/ideas/settings and you borrow too much? How did you (or how would you) deal ...
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 13th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Diana Peterfreund has
come through with the goods: a smart, sensible and clear guide to writing a synopsis.
Go check it out!
Posted by Justine at 17:07, January 12th, 2009 under Writing process |
Natalie says:
I’m writing a fantasy novel. One of the characters has a great background story and I’m really struggling with how, or if, I should include it. I don’t want to vomit background all over a plot that’s moving forward at a good pace. I know background info can be kinda trixy. Is it better if I keep most of it to myself and only tell absolute need to know info within the text? Should I not include any at all? How do you know when to include background information and when to leave it out?
Excellent question. There are two basic approaches to this one. (Feel free to suggest others in the comments.)
1. The infodump
This is where you flat out ...
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 12th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 2:11, January 11th, 2009 under Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 15:09, January 10th, 2009 under Writing process |
Bran-la says:
The thing that i always have trouble with is getting started. I never know what to say in the beginning or where the setting should be. What helps you get started? Any hints and tips would be wonderful!
It is a scientific fact that the majority of first chapters never make it into the final version of the novel. Here's the
very first chapter I wrote of Magic or Madness and here is the
published first chapter of Magic or Madness. You will notice that the two have pretty much nothing in common.
This is good thing to know. It means you can relax and not worry whether your first sentence, first paragraph, first chapter is perfect. Odds are ...
Posted by Justine at 0:27, January 10th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:49, January 9th, 2009 under Reading, Writing process |
There are a number of requests that touch on the same theme of getting stuck:
Jonathan says:
I’d be very interested in the pushing a dead plot post, since that’s where my novel is at.
On the other hand, I sort of know the answer already---stop reading blogs, sit down, and write.
Sylvia_rachel says:
I second the request for a pushing-through-a-dead-plot post (or perhaps a figuring-out-who-the-villain-is post). My writing projects tend to start with a strongly felt character/voice or scene, and then I have to go looking for a plot — sometimes easily found, sometimes … not.
Quiz question: Lois McMaster Bujold has said that the way she finds plots for character-driven novels is (I’m paraphrasing) to figure out what’s the worst thing she ...
Posted by Justine at 19:57, January 5th, 2009 under Ideas, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 1:01, January 3rd, 2009 under Ideas, Writing process |
Malcolm Tredinnick Says:
Picking a point of view and how you learnt to work with the different types would be something I’d be interested to hear about. As a reader, I kind of know when the point of view works for the story and when it doesn’t, but I don’t really know how consciously writers make the choice or how you do it.
Hmmm, a tricky one first up. Curses!
I think I may have mentioned that for most of my writing life i.e since I was five and first started, I wrote short stories, not novels. I'd start many but not finish them. But I finished hundreds of short stories. None of them were much good as stories, but ...
Posted by Justine at 4:03, January 2nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing process |
[UPDATE: I'll be answering questions about the process of writing only. No questions about publishing. Thanks!]
[UPDATE the second: This is for the folks asking about what order I'm answering the questions in. I'm answering them in the order they come in. Though I'm bundling similar themed questions together. If you've asked two unrelated quessies I'll answer your second one only after I've gone through everyone else's first questions. Hope that makes sense! I'll be turning off comments on the last day of January. I won't be doing daily writing posts after that. Though I will try to answer all quessies. It'll just be slower. Much slower.]
I am working on organising my
writing process posts so that they're more accessible. ...
Posted by Justine at 0:02, January 1st, 2009 under Best of Blog, Writing process |
"Write what you know" is one of the most frequent pieces of writing advice. Problem is, it's rubbish. As Cat Sparks discusses at length in
this excellent post:
We've all heard that old adage 'write what you know'. Well, that's a damn fine idea if you happen to be an articulate astronaut, outback adventurer, brain surgeon, fashionista, rock star, molecular biologist or trapeze artist. But if, like me, you're just another white middle class wage slave, maybe you want to rethink that hoary old chestnut. Because maybe we just aren't that interesting and maybe what we know about is duller than a public service tea break. I have developed a better idea. Find something you don't know much about, learn ...
Posted by Justine at 0:34, December 29th, 2008 under Bloggery, Praising, Writing process |
One of the conversations that I have most frequently with my good friend,
Diana Peterfreund, is about our different writing methods. She's an outliner; I wing it.
Tis most excellent fun talking writing with her precisely because we could not be more different. So different that we frequently wind up talking at cross purposes. Last time we had this discussion we got hung up on the phrase "first draft". Turns out that what she means by "first draft" is not what I mean.
Because Diana outlines she figures out much of the novel before she begins writing. I figure things out as I write the first draft. Thus my first drafts---zero drafts really---are frequently messy conversation spines. A large part of ...
Posted by Justine at 2:52, December 17th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Words & Language, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
A large part of being a writer---whether you're published or not---is working to improve, to perfect your craft. One of the biggest obstacles for many beginning writers doing that is that they sometimes get so obsessed with getting published that they forget about the writing.
It took me twenty years of striving to make my first professional fiction sale. I know how you feel---I felt it. I was desperate to get published and that's part of why it took me so long. I kept getting distracted from perfecting my craft. From writing and writing and writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. From reading and studying the best (and worst) writers I could. I was more obsessed with seeing my name ...
Posted by Justine at 0:10, December 8th, 2008 under Ranting, Writing life, Writing process |
